Eat less processed
food

Author Michael Pollan is renowned for this nutrition wisdom: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. The “eat food” bit essentially means “eat real food that’s as minimally processed as possible”. Ultra-processed food (the kind you couldn’t make in your own kitchen) is often high in added sugar and salt, and low in nutrients, and crafted to make you eat more and more and more of it — meaning it’s sensible to opt for “whole” or natural foods where possible.

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Cut portion sizes

A healthier diet doesn’t mean changing what you eat, but also how you eat. One of the simplest ways to eat better is simply just to eat less: cutting back on portion sizes (which tend be way more than we need to survive) is a fast path to weight loss. The Japanese saying "hara hachi bu" roughly translates to "eat until you are 80 percent full", and is credited as one of the reasons that country has mostly avoided the obesity crisis plaguing most of the world.

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Eat more plant-based
foods and less meat

Eating more vegetables will do you good, they’re not the only plant-based foods: others with similar health benefits include fruit, grains, nuts, and legumes. And while you’ll gain from eating more plant foods, there’s not need to cut back drastically on meat to stay healthy — though you’ll benefit from eating less red meat and more lean proteins such as fish (which is linked to big health benefits) and chicken breast.

Eat regular meals

On the surface, it seems logical that skipping meals is a good idea — cutting a whole meal from your day means you eat less, which means you lose weight. In reality it doesn’t work like that: Skipping meals messes up your metabolism and your hormones (specifically insulin), which results in an increased likelihood of weight gain. Experts recommend eating a meal about every three to five hours. (Note that skipping meals is different to something like intermittent fasting, where you only eat within a certain window of time throughout the day.)

Snack healthier

Snacks seem like tiny treats, but they’re often packed with calories — which can add up to big weight gain if you can’t stop raiding the office biscuit jar every afternoon. Rather than quit snacks cold turkey, transition to healthier snack choices: these can include nuts, berries, low-sugar yoghurt, cheese and fruit that are timed between your main meals.

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Plan your meals in
advance

You’re having a busy day at work, so you duck to the nearest food court and make a convenient but less-than-healthy choice to power you through the day. Or you could just hit the office fridge and quickly microwave the nutrition lunch you prepared at home a few days earlier. Experts recommend preparing or at least planning your meals in advance as a strategy to stay on top of your diet. Here’s how to join the mealprep trend.